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Category Archives: reader’s advisory

What an amazing week for celebrating the power of reading in our school! For the past few years, we have celebrated World Read Aloud Day and stretched it into a whole week. This celebration was created by an organization called LitWorld for a very important reason.

We think everyone in the world should get to read and write. Every year, on World Read Aloud Day, people all around the globe read aloud together and share stories to advocate for literacy as a human right that belongs to all people. ~Litworld

In fact, there are some pretty mindblowing facts about reading around the world.

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This week in the library, we’ve hosted skypes and Google Hangouts with classes, libraries, authors, and illustrators as well as hosting an in-person visit with Matt de la Pena & Loren Long.

We’ve stressed many things in these connections. One of those is that we all should read as much as possible and celebrate our freedom and right to read.

Author & Illustrator Visit

On Tuesday, Matt de la Pena & Loren Long visited our 1st-5th grade to share their new book Love. This was one of the many stops on their national tour. Our amazing art teacher, Ms. Rita Foretich collaborated with me in the library to create art projects with every grade level in the school. We wanted them to know how much their book impacted us by showing them an art exhibit throughout the front halls of the school.

Matt & Loren started their visit with a reading of the book. Matt read the book from memory while Loren painted the front cover of the book on chart paper.

Then, they both took time to tell us their own personal journeys of how they came to work together on the book, Love. From Matt’s basketball scholarship to college to Loren’s mom encouraging him to continue his art pursuit even with the barrier of being colorblind, we learned of the many examples of love that filled these two guys lives. They brought messages to students about taking risks, loving and respecting your family, working hard even when things are hard, having empathy for people going through tough bumps in the road of life, and more. I hope that their messages will connect with students for years to come.

The power of their spoken word had our audience of 450 1st-5th graders captivated for an entire hour. We can’t thank Penguin, Avid Bookshop, and Matt & Loren enough for taking time to visit our school.

On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, several of our classes connected with other classes around the country via Skype and Google Hangout to read aloud books. This year, I tried to select books that had an element of discussion around doing good in the world. Selections included books like Love by Matt de la Pena, Be a Friend by Salina Yoon, We’re All Wonders by R J Palacio, Yo Yes by Chris Raschka, A Hat for Mrs. Goldman by Michelle Edwards, and Maybe Something Beautiful by Isabel Campoy & Theresa Howell.

Each connection had its own variation. Sometimes students helped me read the text to the other class. Sometimes the two librarians alternated reading the text. Other times we read one book to our connecting class and they read a book back to us. We always spent time making connections with one another through sharing and questions. We talked about things like making things beautiful in our school, creating gifts to give to others in need, identifying wonders of our classmates, and what it takes to be a good friend. So many of our conversations were filled with meaningful ways to make sure the world is a great place to live, and we learned that we aren’t alone in our interests and routines.

Authors & Illustrator Skypes

On the official World Read Aloud Day, we had several skypes with authors and illustrators. Anne Marie Pace, Brian Lies, Carter Higgins, Donna Gephart, Jody Feldman, and Loree Griffin Burns all connected with students. I loved that they showed many of their books and then read aloud from one of them. Any time an author/illustrator connects with us in person or in Skype, they immediately become a favorite author/illustrator in our library. Their books fly off the shelves and stay checked out. This time was no different.

Brian Lies read from Bats at the Beach and then got kids to brainstorm a new bat drawing that he illustrated on Skype.

Donna Gephart read to us from a book that she had just gotten the ARCs for. We couldn’t take pictures or record anything, but it was so exciting to get an early preview. Loree Burns went in depth with students about her research process and writing about what matters in the world. A group of writers met with her and got lots of inspiration for their own writing. Anne Marie Pace and Carter Higgins both read from brand new books with a timely topics of love and Groundhog Day.

We are so appreciative of these professionals who take time out of their busy schedules to connect with readers.

Mapping

As usual, we used Google Tour Builder to keep track of our connections and the books that we shared. It’s always fun at the end of the week to see all of the stories that have been shared and the connections we’ve made. Technology flattens our world and reminds us that stories can connect us across the miles.

For the first quarter of the year, I’ve been exploring how to start book clubs in our school in a variety of ways. I hoped that by offering a variety of ways to engage with a book, that we would support many different interests, availabilities, and format preferences. Our book for quarter 1 was The Seventh Most Important Thing by Shelley Pearsall. I offered 2 main ways of participating in our quarter 1 book club: 1 was reading the book during a lunch book club with me and another was a family book club where students and families read the book together.

For both book clubs, I created a shared Flipgrid where readers could leave thoughts, questions, favorite parts, etc for various segments of the book.

My lunch book club met every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to chat about the book as well as listen to me read aloud. Then, they would continue a set number of pages before we met again. The students enjoyed this time out of the noisy lunchroom. We got to know one another better through our discussion of the hard topics of the book, and we had many laughs and sad moments as read aloud. Many students read way ahead in the book because they were so excited and eager to know what happened, but they continued to come and listen to me re-read the parts they had already read and continued to contribute to the conversations.

Nine other elementary schools in our district also read the book. We decided that at the end of our school-level book clubs, we would use Skype and Google Hangouts to connect our schools together across the district so that our students could talk to one another. My students connected with Angie Pendley’s students at Gaines Elementary. We used Google Hangouts and a set of slides to guide our conversations. Students took turns at each school stepping up to the camera and sharing their thoughts about the questions. It was fun to hear from students in another school and see a different perspective on the book as well as many connections to what we experienced when we read.

The family book club read at home on their own and we held one face-to-face meeting at the end of the book. We had about 21 families reading the book, so I hoped to have a large group discussion.

However, due to many schedule conflicts, we had a very small group. Even though it was a small group, it was a mighty discussion. We chatted as we gathered and shared some snacks. The author, Shelley Pearsall, offered to connect with us for a few minutes over Skype, so we took time to connect with her and ask some questions about the book. We learned how the title of the book started out as “Metallic”, but the publisher changed it to the title we see today. We learned about the research that Shelley Pearsall put into the book to match the 60’s time period as well as learn some facts about the life of James Hampton and his art piece.

Some of our families asked about the other characters in the book and how their stories came about. We even got to see a brainstorming page that Shelley Pearsall used to map out the 7 things and their connections to Arthur and the story.

After our Skype, we used the same questions that our lunch book club used to have a rich discussion. I loved hearing parents and children talking together on equal ground and sharing their wonderings, excitement, and sadness from the book. I definitely want to build upon what we experienced because it was a wonderful first experience that I would love to see more people be a part of.

For quarter 2, I’m trying to build upon our book clubs. With the help of 2 UGA students, I am continuing the 4th grade lunch book club and adding on a 5th grade group. I’m also expanding he family book club to included more grade levels in the hope that more people will be able to attend our in-person event. This time we are using 3 different books instead of the same one. As always, it’s a work in progress, but our reading community is growing. One of the things I loved hearing from some of the parents is how excited they were to read together as a family. I also had family members tell me they had never been a part of a book club and they were excited to finally try one out.

Ms. Freeman, 5th grade reading teacher, is always brainstorming ways to make the reading standards more engaging for students. One of the standards focuses on how visual and multimedia elements enhance the text. Specifically, the standard is:

She wondered aloud with me about what we might do together in the library with this standard, and we came up with a visual mystery of sorts. Before students came, I selected about 30 picture books and copied 1 page with 1 accompanying illustration from each book.

When students arrived, we took a look at the standard and then read Dad and the Dinosaur by Gennifer Choldenko and Dan Santat.

The students were quick to notice the amount of figurative language packed into this book. As we read, I slowed us down so that we could really look at the illustration and how it matched Gennifer Choldenko’s words as well as how it enhanced her words. We imagined Dan Santat receiving the text without the pictures and how he might visualize the illustrations while he read. We noticed how the grass looked like a sponge when Choldenko talked about the “spongy grass”. We noticed the boy’s face lit up in green when Choldenko talking about how it “glowed like a glow stick”. We made lots of noticings.

Then, I gave each student one of the pages of text that I had copied. I asked them to imagine that they were the illustrator receiving this text. What did they visualize as they read?

Once students had a chance to read the passage and create a picture in their mind, they wandered around the library tables where I had spread out all of the images that matched the text. They had to search for the image that they felt matched their text.

It was very tricky for some because some of the text could potentially match more than one image, but if they looked at the details of the text and the details of the illustration, they should be able to find the exact match.

When students felt confident in their choice, they recorded a Flipgrid video explaining why they felt like their match was correct.

Click the image to listen to our videos

Finally, students went to another set of tables where the full books were spread out. They located the book with their image and explored the title, the images, and rest of the text. Many students discovered a picture book that they wanted to continue reading. Several have been back since the lesson to check out the book.

Another student came to the library to show me one of her guided reading books and how there was a mistake between the image and text. The color of a dog’s collar did not match the description in the text and she wanted me to see that she noticed. I loved that her author and illustrator eye continued on beyond our lesson in the library.

This took some time to put together, but Ms. Freeman and I were really happy with how it turned out and how many students explored books that they might not explore on their own.

It never fails that I overload on Advance Reading Copies of books at conferences I attend, and then I just can’t manage to get to all of them to read. I do in fact read many of them, but then I’m left with a stack of books sitting in my office. As we approach summer, I’m always wondering how to get more books in kids’ hands for summer reading. We promote our incredible public library summer reading programs, but I know that even with talking it up, some kids just won’t make it over there.

I decided to give our 4th graders (rising 5th graders) an opportunity for the summer. I took all of those ARCs I had read as well as some that I hadn’t read and spread them out on tables. Each class came to the library and I gave a quick spiel to them about how I really needed to hear their voices about some books that we might purchase for the library. I encouraged students that even if they didn’t find a book that jumped out at them they should try something new and stretch themselves as readers. This is something I’m wanting to do more of next year because I think it’s so important for students to help build the collection in the library. By allowing them to read the ARCs and give their opinions, they are owning the collection and will also be more likely to recommend books to their friends if they have chosen them.

Each student had a chance to go to the tables and select a book. I book talked ones that I had read and listened in as students made their decisions. I loved that every student took a book. Then, they filled out a paper with their name, book title, and author so that I could keep up with who got which book. Finally, students moved to another area where they put a label inside their book with a place for their name as well as a link to a Flipgrid where they can record their thoughts over the summer.

I’ve never tried this as a summer opportunity, so it’s a bit of an experiment. I’m curious to see how many students follow through with recording their Flipgrids. Even if they don’t, I have a record of their books so that I can at least check in with them in the fall to see if they read their book.

If they liked the experience, then perhaps these students will want to take this on as a project next year when I get ARCs in the mail or at conferences.

Every year a volunteer group of students give their time to spend a budget on books for the library. This budget comes from grants, book fair profits, and rewards points and it is completely in their control. They create a survey, interview students throughout the school, analyze the results, set goals, meet with vendors, create consideration lists, narrow the lists to the final order, unpack the books, and display them for checkout.

Because there were so many books, it was hard to put them all out at once. As books got checked out, we refilled the tables with new books. Within the day that the books were put on display, almost all of them had been checked out.

Once again, the amazing Amy Cox at Capstone allowed our committee members to choose 1 book that was their personal choice for the library and these books were donated to us as a thank you. Students got to put a personalized label on the inside cover to show that they were the selector of the book.

Student voice matters in the library, and every year I value this process of seeing students BE the process of collection development instead of just requesting books to be purchased. When they take part in every step of the collection development process, they see the thought that goes into each book on our library shelves.

They see that their interests and requests matter because they immediately see those represented in the books on our shelves. If the library is to be a true community, then I feel like one person can’t decide on all of the books in the collection. I certainly have a major role in collection development, but when my students work alongside me in this process, we all become members of our library rather than just a consumer.

Back in January, we were inspired by Jennifer LaGarde and Brad Gustafson’s 30-second book talk challenge. Our 5th graders all worked on scripts and recorded 30-second book talks on Flipgrid. Thanks to Flipgrid’s new Global Connections feature, our grid was shared with other users of Flipgrid. I also shared it widely on social media. Over time, students from around the globe started adding their voices to our grid. Thanks to views, likes, and judge’s choice, we now have a top 16 out of over 90 videos on the grid.

Using Google Drawing, I made a bracket for us to use over the month of March. Round 1 is now open. Students were placed into groups of four to compete against one another to move onto the next round.

I also embedded the drawing onto a Google Site with a form for voting.

This is my first attempt at a March Madness style reading incentive. It is truly amazing to look at all 90+ videos and see how passionate and creative the kids were in their talk. The real winners in all of this are the students who made the videos and every viewer who takes time to listen to their voices. The March Madness event is just a little icing on top to celebrate our hard work.

We invite you to join in round 1. Voting is open through the end of the night on March 17th. Then, round 2 will be announced. Please feel free to vote more than once and share with your own networks.